Here is the good news/bad news from Thursday night’s American Idol finale of a quartet of shows that resulted in 20 finalists – most of whom have no business being on the list.

First, the bad news … they sliced five more male contestants and kept five. Of the five they kept, only two deserved the accolade and of the 10 who performed … well, only three were worth hearing. So, give it up for Vincent Powell, Burnell Taylor (both of whom who made it) and Mathenee Treco (who didn’t).

Second, the good news … we might have heard from the eventual winner. And that would be Mr. Taylor. He sang “This Time” by John Legend and his performance was … let’s let the judges attempt to explain.

Keith Urban: “You are strikingly original and here to stay.”

Nicki Minaj: “I would pay to see your show. You deserve to get out of the ‘hood. I know what that feels like.”

Randy Jackson: “It was captivating.”

Mariah Carey: “I thought that was fantastic.”

Taylor escaped the ravages of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and so far as a result of his success on AI he has lost 40 pounds, has a new look and sounds like he’s been doing this sort of thing for years. But there is a long way for him to go to win, much less make the Top 10, as the show appears to be hell-bent on anointing a female winner this season.

As for Thursday night … yawn! Here are the winners and the losers with one man’s ranking on a scale of 1-to-10 on their performance.

Next week we get three evenings of AI and by week’s end we will be down to a Top 10, which will get each of the finalists a rather healthy paycheck. The big payday is winning, second is making the Top 10, getting a good bit of air-time and a spot on the lucrative AI Summer Tour.

In the meantime, AI question of the day – is it just me or does Mariah look to her left rather consistently during her comments? And if so, why is she doing that? Just sayin’…